San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-04-15

She stood at the gate waving her hand
az the young man drove away.
The spring was lingering still about the
old house, behind the girls slim shape
itself sweet personifcation of the young
May time Of the year-beneath her feet,
above her fair little head was the inimit-
able green of the early foliage and Of the
tender springing grass. Birds were sing
ing madly, one against the other in the
old elms on the Rectory lawn, and gusts
of perfume from hidden violet-beds were
blown about under the faint blue sky.
Mark looked back at her as long as he
could make ont the pretty, shabby, ra-
diant figure; and a thought crossed him
that he was leaving his boyhOOd too be-
hind.
sibyl had no time to be sentimental
Before Marks fly was well out Of sight,
she began TO busy herself about Perciv-
ais room and to concert with Lady Anna
a general furnishing up. on an inexpen-
sive scale, ID every nook and corner in
the dear old Rcctory.
81 am so glad it will be summer when
he arrives she cried ioyfully. "With
open windows and roses everywhere, in
doors and out, we shall look our very,
very best in his honor"
sand j want my little daughter to look
her best too" said Lady Anna looking at
the bright young creature with u smile
and sigh. ave must contrive new
gown or two somehow, darling, before he
comes"
"Aunt Anna! As if he would, have
time TO think about my old frocks! They
will do very well, dear, for another year!"
But remembering that muslin is cheap,
and as becoming as cheap TO the young
beauty that needs so little adOrnment,
Lady Anna took the law into her own
hands for once. There was that old
lace in the carved ivory box upstairs;
she never wore it now. 1t would never
be missed.
Sibyl stared when aunt Anna ordered
the fly one fine day and set off on a jour
ney to the nearest lit e town. And she
would have scolded her soundly when
the fly came back with parcels on the
front seat-parcels that were all for Sibyl
only that she broke down and sobbed
upon Lady Annals neck instead.
"Aunt Anna, how could your" she said
in n chOked little voice. sand would not
Percival have liked me as well in my
brown hollandsH"
"You are grown up now, my Sibyl," said
aunt Anna fondly. "You must have few
things like other pretty girls. The sum-
mer will soon be here; so we must make
haste"
Indeed the spring was already over and
forgotten. Summer was at hand. Sibyl
could see it coming nearer day by day, as
she sat at her bedroom window, sewing
at new gowns, and thinking-thinking.
The roses were reddening on the lawn in
honor of Percival's coming. The great
hedge of sweet peas below her windows
was all purple and pink and-white with
blossoms. The sun brought out the warm
strong spices of the Glove gillyhowers IN
the old-fashioncd beds, where they grew
in a friendly confusion of sweet williams,
and pinks, and mignonnette. The bees
were flying busily between them and their
row of straw hives beyond the hedge
Sibyl could hear them humming in the
hot noon sunshine as she sat stitching as
busily as any bee, and putting forth her
new petals like the fairest rose in the old
Rectory gardens.
She had delicate ivory muslin, with
knots here and there Of palest pink; a
Quakerish little gray one, which Lady
Anna declared TO be the prettiest Of all; a
white one for high days and holidays, be-
sides all the little sundries which go to
make up girls toilette, but which Sibyl
had managed without hitherto, and hard
ly missed. No more clumsy boots from
the village, such as had so greatly shock
ed the Countess's susceptibilities, but
pretty little high -heeled shoes and few
pair of long gloves, and a new hat for
church, and one for the gardenl Was it
not summer indeed, and Percival on his
way home2
Meanwhile the pretty gowns were fin
ished and put away, and Sibyl in her old
holland frock was busy about the house
from morning till night. She repapered
Percivars room herself and contrived to
hang the paper almost straight; she made
new curtains for it, and put them up her.
self; all day long she was hammering and
stitching and going about in a big apron,
with dusty hands, and feeling that she
had never had so pleasant work to do in
all her life before.
Then came a message from Southamp-
ton over which Lady Anna and the girl
chung together, laughing and weeping
with joy at PercivaPs safe arrival-then
another from London, saying that he
would be m lockwood that evening.
Sibyl was obliged to go out for long
walk when it came to this. Lady Anna
declared that she could not stand her
about the house at all. But she was at
home in time to sec that the supper-table
was properly set and decked with the
roses she had gathered at the last mo-
ment, so that they should be fresh. She
saw that all the windows were wide open,
all the blinds lowered, so as to keep the
pretty old room dark and cool; and then,
after rush into the kitchen to make sure
that Percivals boyish fancies in the way
of dishes had been duly regarded, it was
time to go up stairs to her own room and
begin to dress.
What happy toilet that was! What
pleasant work it is for girl to make her
self look her prettiest for the eyes she
loves.
H. oo,oF,I,- GILL b,,,,b al a,,J l,ro;3